Category: Yield

Posted on in Challenge, Faith, Prayer, Worship, Yield

Ever Heard This One?

Awoke from a nap with this in my brain. Worked to find it to share. Recorded 1963. Sadness here in 2023 over Israel, Palestine, Hamas. Please pray for the victims of yet another war.

People being taken prisoner. Even children. So many dead. Reserves being called up. Our ship moving to the area. Retired Israeli military officers grabbing their guns to protect their family. The unimaginable occurring. Possibly more militants from another nation moving into the war. And we hear nothing about the welfare of the Palestinian people. Hamas rages on. Death toll near 1,400.

Please pray for the victims. The leaders of the world are trying to decide their next move. Please pray for wisdom.

 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Matthew 24:6-8 NIV

It is possible we are about to see another world war in our lifetime. God forbid.

Not to mention earthquake in Afghanistan. Estimated 2,400 dead.

Lord, have mercy upon us all.

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Faith, Journal, Just do it, Listen, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Writing Life, Yield

Book Quotes

In Mad Honey Jodi Picoult wrote, “We aren’t here on earth in order to bend over backward to resemble everybody else. We’re here to be ourselves, in all our gnarly brilliance.”

Another author wrote, “Stop trying to be someone. You are someone.”

Are you willing to live the challenge to be your own authentic specially created self? There is no one else on earth who can be you. At almost 73 years lived I am here to tell you that you are a special creation, loved and cherished by the Father with special tasks in mind for you and you alone.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 NIV

In Sensible Shoes Sharon G. Brown wrote: “She said, ‘Write what you’re feeling. Tell the truth. Write like nobody’s reading.’ And just like that, I was invited to show up authentically to my grief and pain. It was a simple act but nothing short of a revolution for me. It was this revolution that started in this blank notebook 30 years ago that shaped my life’s work. The secret, silent correspondence with myself. Like a gymnast, I started to move beyond the rigidity of denial into what I’ve now come to call emotional agility.”

Have you tried this practice? Years ago when I began journaling I made Bob promise that he would not read the journal. As far as I know he has absolutely kept that promise. Then later I asked him to promise that if I die before him he would not let the children read my journals. I wrote much in there trying to work out how to parent them. It reflects on my ignorance and searching more than on their behavior and how I truly love them, even when they were on my last nerve.

I sometimes think of this blog as journaling on the screen. Some of what I post comes from my recent journals. Would you take the challenge to be authentic in journal writing? There are no rules in how to do it. At times I write paragraphs with complete sentences. Other times simply a list of words. Phrases that pop up. Prayers, things copied from others, crayon drawings, photographs. Magazine clippings. It is your journal. You can make it any way that you want. The main goal is to be authentic. Having a lousy day? Write that. A great day? Fill the page with sunlit words.

Authentic: genuine, no pretense, transparent. Below is my favorite image of transparent with the Lord.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 NIV

There is something amazing about putting your thoughts and experiences into words. At times you learn something about yourself that was previously hidden from you. You come across thoughts that were difficult to contact previously. At times, uncovering something you knew earlier in life but then forgot! Sort of like a pen as a steam shovel, excavating a basement, down to a bedrock belief.

The shelf with the open shell and the shelf below it up to the Bible and Harper’s Bible Commentary show my journals minus one or two.

I have had folks tell me they cannot write. I always think to myself, “Well you can think. We all think (unless there is a brain injury of some sort.) Write what you think about.”

“Here to be ourselves…Be the someone we are created to be.” Stop apologizing for who you are. Sharon Brown called journal writing ‘secret, silent correspondence with myself.’ I would expand that thought to include correspondence with the Father. When I write it is often a revelation to me what I am thinking. Many times also, there comes a revelation of what the Father thinks about what I hold as truth. Holding a wrong interpretation, if I am willing to yield, that concept can be corrected.

One of the stories Bob was always glad to read to our children was Mike Mulligan. The story is about Mike and his steam shovel, Mary Anne.

The newer types of shovels took away jobs from the steam shovels.

I think journaling can be a form of self examination. Why not give it a try? You might begin like in a child’s diary just recording events that occur. Given time and prayer and a willingness to go below the surface I believe you can find treasures within your own life experiences.

You will never know unless you give it a try! Use your pen as a steam shovel. You just might come upon treasure you buried a long, long time ago!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Just do it, Listen, Nature, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Yield

Got Nourishment?

by r m dutina

Where do you draw nourishment for your soul? I asked Bob to take the photo above because it stirred something in me. You can see not only how the leaves are attached to the branch, but how the leaves have a nourishment system.

Walking to our garbage can storage area we have been watching the elephant ears develop and then open.

M L Dutina

Again the nourishment avenues within each leaf.

M L Dutina

Can you trace the nourishment in your soul from the river of living water flowing inside of you?

I love the photo above. If you look at the top center of the leaf you can see the rough corner of decorative stone on the house. I can only suppose that a wind storm caused the creases on the left side of the photo. Such contrast between rock and leaf.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5 VIV

How is your connection to the LORD? Are you remaining in Him and giving way for Him to remain in you? Then the admonition, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Nothing that lasts, nothing of eternal significance and meaning can be done separate from Him.

As you pass growing leaves or perhaps fallen colored leaves, take a moment to pause and look at the vein system. Is your path of nourishment as clearly defined? How might you deepen and improve that nourishment path?

Steve Green recorded this years ago, 2017. When I heard it for the first time it stopped me in my tracks! Two minutes of challenge. Hoping you will listen!

I am praying that you listen to what the Lord is saying to you personally. I pray you make whatever changes He wishes for you to have better nourishment for your soul and spirit. Will you?

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Traveling, Yield

Amy Carmichael and Faithfulness lyric

This is from the writings of Amy Carmichael in Edges of His Ways.

Deuteronomy 2:3: Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.
It would take too long to tell what this word has said to me. I will only say it spoke about a mountain of thought around which I have walked rather often. It is time to stop compassing that mountain.
After settling that matter, I remembered one who for two whole years has been walking around a certain Mountain of Desire. When the desired thing was not given at the expected time, there was great disappointment. Perhaps the Lord is saying to that one and to others who are constantly praying about something personally desired, “Leave the matter to Me: you have prayed enough about it. You have compassed that mountain long enough.”
I know another who always seems to be walking around a mountain of rubble. Self and the feelings of self, doubts and questions, grumblings, little piled-up ingratitudes, what are these but rubble? Is it not very dull to keep on compassing so dull a mountain? Hear the heartening word of the Lord, ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. “Rise ye up, take your journey” (v. 24), “fight the good fight of faith,” begin to possess your possessions.

Trekking in Rubble

This morning after reading Amy Carmichael I kept hearing ‘strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.’ I had to find the source of that line. It is from Great is Thy Faithfulness, by Thomas O Chisholm, verse 3.

Vs. 1 Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Refrain:
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see:
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Vs. 2 Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

Vs. 3 Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow—
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

What mountain are you trekking around? In the Old Testament God told the Israelites to “take another lap around the mountain.” They were ungrateful and unbelieving.

10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,

They shall never enter my rest.

Psalm 95:10-11 NIV

I think the New Testament has brought us hope and a challenge to put down our ungrateful hearts and enter into His rest through the shed blood of Jesus. Will we embrace His faithfulness today and marry it with our own? Our faithfulness comes from the faithfulness of Jesus.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

2 Peter 1:3 NIV

Jesus can help us live a godly life and stop trekking about the same mountain ’round and around and around. Are we willing to stop and listen for His direction off the path of endless repetition and futile thinking? He gives us strength for today. There have been days I thought I would never get through. Yet, He gives me strength. Sufficient strength for today.

Bob and I find that as we age (seemingly faster and faster) God gives us strength for each day. Just as the Israelites could not store manna for the next day, but needed to gather it each day, we draw our strength from Him one day at a time. He gives us faith and if we are willing to look for it, joy, too.

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2 NIV

I pray this blog helps you to stop walking in the same old ruts, around and around. Stop and ask the Lord of your faith to help you as Amy Carmichael wrote, “Hear the heartening word of the Lord, ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. “Rise ye up, take your journey” (v. 24), “fight the good fight of faith,” begin to possess your possessions.“

Posted on in Faith, Just do it, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Worship, Yield

Have You Turned to Give Thanks

So easy to pray and ask, but thanks after the event?

Each of us have thousands of thoughts daily. When bad news comes we sometimes project the worst possible outcomes. When those worst things never come to pass do you give thanks?

Not talking pumpkin spiced thanks. Every season of every year! Not talking Turkey and pie here – daily thanks. “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God.” But do we? I first Thessalonians chapter 5 Paul writes a list of things we are to do in our walk. “Be at peace, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, rejoice, pray, hold fast to what is good”, etc. This was set to music when my kids were little. It was a great way to learn the passage. If you want to look it up on You Tube it is usually entitled “Rejoice Evermore.”

in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

I love this painting. For me it says so very much! Ten lepers were cleansed. Only one thought to turn and give thanks.

Ten Lepers by James C. Christensen

Have you tried it? Turning back and giving thanks. Spend one week with this as your focus. When you don’t get the thing you were fearing or ‘awfulizing’ about do you give thanks? Will post about same subject a week from now. New habits can be difficult to initiate, but so rewarding when you find it is a practice! Notice how you do!

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17:11-19 NIV

However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Luke 18:8b NIV
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Listen, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Yield

My Utmost

Oswald Chambers continues to inspire me. In My Utmost for His Highest, daily readings were selected mostly from his lectures from 1911 to about 1917. The August 20 selection is entitled “Completeness.” Since I recently posted about the teaching in Hebrews about rest this seems so appropriate.

“And I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer. Say – Lord, prove Thy consciousness in me, and self-consciousness will go and He will be all in all. Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is Satanic. Well, I am not understood; this is a thing they ought to apologize for; that is a point I really must have cleared up. Leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness, and He will poise you until the completeness is absolute.

Oswald Chambers

My goodness. I found that so powerful this morning. I opened to this selection and it was not even August 20! God knows what I need at all times.

John Eldredge writing in the book Resilient cautions against the same thing. He calls it desolation.

 Chris Stenger on Unsplash

I realized a few days ago that the warfare I was coming up against was this desolation, trying to disintegrate my life with Jesus and His people. Coming to that realization was huge for me. I know how to bow to the King of Kings and let Him help me. Chambers says to ‘take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against.’ The Lord has taught me that when I recognize darkness trying to encroach upon my life to PUSH BACK. Basically stomp my foot and declare, “NO!” or as some popular t-shirts say “Not today, satan.”

Chambers says to ‘leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness.’ Draw close to the LORD. Pray to think His thoughts. Follow His lead. Be His in every way.

Repeatedly in the New Testament we are told to mind our own business. (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, John 21:22) If I am truly paying attention to my walk with Jesus, my attitudes, my frame of mind, my motives and desires … if I am doing all that, I will not have time nor energy to get into someone else’s business.

Whew. Not exactly a tall order that I cannot grasp, but sobering to realize that missing the mark at times can simply be blaming others when I have no authority to judge. I so easily deceive myself. (Jeremiah 17:9)

Jesus says, “Come unto Me and I will give you rest,” i.e., Christ-consciousness will take the place of self-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself.

Oswald Chambers Utmost, August 20, Completeness

Looking up images to illustrate “disintegrate” I was amazed at how many depicted satanic happenings in films. Interesting that even online photos reflect this truth. Yuck.

It is amazing if we are willing to listen to God, examine our selves, repent and move on how an abundance of rest becomes ours! I cannot tell you how STRONGLY I want you to try this for yourself.

Photo by Abhishek Koli on Unsplash
Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Family, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Yield

What to Do?

The other day I was pondering since I am going to try to do more with Inter-parish Ministry (feeding the hungry) and I already lead a biweekly small group and just finished a weekly small group, do I sign up to help in a fifth grade classroom, too? As well as write and blog? The quote below came to mind. Like many good quotes this one has controversy over who actually wrote it or said it. Dickens? Wesley? H. R. Clinton?

Quote Investigator at https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/09/24/all-good/ says:

John Wesley was a prominent English religious figure whose teachings inspired Methodism. (Faith of my mother and grandparents.) The following elaborate injunction is sometimes called “John Wesley’s Rule of Life”:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

The 1799 work “Sermons on Several Occasions” by Reverend John Wesley contained a homily on “The Law Established through Faith” with the following guidance.

Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Neither is love content with barely working no evil to our neighbour. It continually incites us to do good: as we have time, and opportunity, to do good in every possible kind, and in every possible degree to all men.

John Wesley

I need to rearrange my writing schedule as that one day seems to always be interrupted by medical appointments. Is there time to fit another activity in this calendar? At what point am I over-committed and prone to burn out?

As they teach at Walk to Emmaus or Cursillo life leads us to Do-Be-Do-Be-Do. I will pray about these decisions. Eventually it will become clear what time to block off for writing. Currently that has been Monday and Tuesday mornings. Inter Parish Ministry has been every other week. Oh, then we throw in volleyball games at college level with Grandgirl (when the games are in town, 6 PM) and soccer games with grandson (when times coincide with what we can accomplish, Saturday mornings). My husband and I wonder why we are so tired? In our seventies and get weary over seemingly nothing.

Help Lord we need wisdom about all the good, all the ways, all the means, all the places, all the times, all the peoples, but most of all, WE WANT YOU, Lord Jesus!

Posted on in Faith, Just do it, Listen, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Yield

Mistaken Idea

Br. David Steindl-Rast wrote:

Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being.

“Rightly understood, a vital awareness.” Has this awareness permeated your being? I do not think it can pervade our awareness until we learn to rest. The following passage from Hebrews seems long, but it is worth the read.

Warning against Unbelief

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, when you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

12 Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end, 15 while it is said,

“Today, when you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

16 Who were they that heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they should never enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

The Rest That God Promised

4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them; but the message which they heard did not benefit them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall never enter my rest,’”

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this place he said,

“They shall never enter my rest.”

6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he sets a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, when you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later of another day. 9 So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God; 10 for whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his.

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Hebrews 3:11-4:13 RSV

Some reasons they failed to enter? Disobedience, put God to the test, not knowing God’s ways, deceitfulness of sin, hardness of heart, unbelief. The same account is given in Psalm 95. The hearers were disobedient through (Meribah) strife, quarreling, and (Massah) temptation and demanding proof.

Verses 9-10 tell us THERE REMAINS a Sabbath rest for us if we will learn from the errors of the past, both theirs and ours.

We are exhorted to ‘make every effort to enter that rest.” Exhorted: To urge by strong, often stirring argument, admonition, advice, or appeal.

So this me exhorting you and myself to enter into His rest. I have been studying this passage for years and trying to learn how to LIVE it. We attended one church where folks were so proud of themselves if they could name the books of the Bible in order or quote familiar passages with chapter and verse references. My soul kept wanting to ask them if they could LIVE one of those verses?

My prayer is that you will print out this blog. Ponder the meaning for yourself. Review it for several weeks. Determine if you are willing to enter His Rest through obedience, trusting God, learn His ways, discover and refuse the deceitfulness of sin. Are you asking Him to soften the places in your heart that are hard? Strife, temptation and quarreling are so easy to do. {Bob and I learned that by him serving on the Home Owners Association board here for two years. There are people who thrive on chaos. If there is no chaos they are more than willing to create it!}

We are to be the people who are to put all of that aside and rest in Him.

Posted on in Aging, Challenge, Faith, Illness and Health, Just do it, Memories, Music, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Worship, Yield

Complain or Praise

So difficult to remember to praise when your physical being hijacks the intentions of your heart! I want to praise and today it is difficult. Then I remembered I could put on this song while I did at home PT. And in a few minutes I remembered I<Him. He >me.

As he was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Luke 19: 37-40

We usually think garments on the road. Jesus on a donkey. The crowd cheering. I first heard this song years ago. It is a commentary on Luke 19. Listen to this song and imagine yourself in the crowd singing this one!

The lyrics below go with the YouTube recording.

Now Jesus was going up
On his way to Jerusalem
To be lifted up on a tree
That he might draw all men to Him
The multitudes began to praise Him
While other were trying to stop them
And Jesus said, "If these hold their peace
The stones will surely cry out"

And here is one less stone
One more voice
To praise the mighty name
The name of our Lord
Here is one less stone
One more to praise Him
Blessed is the King who comes
In the name of our Lord

Now David was a man of praises
Praising God in the sanctuary
He praised Him on the trumpet and the harp
And he praised Him in the dance
I don't wanna offend nobody
But I'm gonna worship Jesus
'Cause He said if I hold my peace
The stones will surely cry out
See all the stones in the distance? How many Christians do you know who are praising right now?

I want to be the ONE LESS STONE and one more voice to praise the LORD!

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Faith, Just do it, Memories, Nature, Thanks, Traveling, Yield

Too cold. Too hot.

Awoke with ceiling fan and floor fan on full blast. Legs and feet frozen. Temperature outside 62.

Same morning worked in yard and along entrance sidewalk for about 1-1/2 hours. Drenched. Every. Single. Stitch. I was wearing. August in Ohio. Was 76 degrees and humid when I came indoors. Bob says my thermostat is broken.

Here is my new favorite perennial.

Hibiscus or Mallow Shrub

Yes, they are like day lilies in that they drop their flowers every day, but what a delight!

This rabbit is certain if he sits tall and still I either will not see him or think he is a wrought iron statue. (two slots left of Mallow.) Then he turned and ate a pyracantha leaf. No wonder that shrub does not flourish!!

Yes, I know, not the best focus. So far he has not eaten the mallow shrub to the left!

This what I got from an entire package of nasturtium seeds. Lousy ground and lousy year for gardening! Perhaps the wood chips are to blame as I now hear they make terrible mulch for growing things. Ugh!

Yes, the leaves are supposed to be mottled.

Perhaps it is because we did not sow seeds until after May 19th when we returned from Maui? So sad the happenings in Maui. Each time we watch the news we are just stunned. Those poor people. Most of them got out with their lives, but now not only the clean up but questioning if it will be safe to live there with all the chemicals in the soil. Land grabbers trying to buy up the land. The spiritual center of Maui in ruins. Lord may those who lost their lives rest in peace. May those who are still missing loved ones have Your comfort. They say identification may take months or years as in most cases the pathologists are working with dust.

The opening photo was our dinner in Lahaina at Kimo’s restaurant. Totally gone now.

Online photo. Now I wish we had taken more photos of the street!

Scanning videos and photos on line, trying to decide what best to show you. This one photo certainly sums it up. Front street as it is now. And then I find myself overwhelmed with grief for the people there.

Never mind. I have nothing to complain about. We have been told the Red Cross is the best place to give donations. One of the airlines that I had accumulated miles on asked if I wanted to donate the miles to the cause. I responded absolutely! My friend who ministers in Nepal said this Hope Force International is also quite reputable. 

https://hopeforceinternational.app.neoncrm.com/forms/general-donation-form

Whatever you do , try to give to something to the rebuilding of Lahaina. Such terrible loss.

LORD, uplift and sustain the people of Lahaina and those who love her. Send the comfort of Your Spirit to them. Show each of the readers how to best support them in their losses. May Your will be done in our hearts and in our giving.